FLY FISHING FOR GREY MULLET. 87 



other places in the Mediterranean. At San Sebastian an 

 elaborate ground-bait is made of chopped heads of sar- 

 dines, potatoes, and clay, squeezed into balls. Immediately 

 this is thrown in, the hook, baited with a very small square 

 of salted tunny, follows, and good sport is obtained. 



Fly fishing for grey mullet in the daytime, though it is 

 often tried, is rarely successful. The fish will follow a fly, 

 but will rarely seize it. At night the fly fisher stands a 

 better chance, and will now and again take a few fish on a 

 white moth. The dressing of a night fly for mullet was 

 described in the following letter, published in the Fishing 

 Gazette of June 18, 1887 :— 



"Sir, — I believe there are some rivers — generally shallow 

 ones — in which mullet will not take a bait. With regard to 

 flies, I have taken some mullet at night with a silver-bodied 

 moth : wing, owl's feather ; hackle, white ; tail, a bit of kid or 

 wash leather. The body should be first wrapped with wool, to 

 make it fat, and the tinsel wound over it. 



"In the Gazette of September 3, 1881, Mr. J. D. Dougal 

 says that *a man used to take them on the Clyde with a 

 white fly, on the hook of which he put the bivalved oval 

 spout fish, called on the Clyde Garrocher, the scientific name 

 being Mya arenaria. Part of the flesh of this — probably the 

 spout, which is exceedingly tough — ^he put on his fly. He 

 angled at low water, and took numbers, from 31b. to 51b. 

 each.' 



"I think this plan would be worth a trial where the Mya 

 arenaria can be got, and I believe it is common on the British 

 coast. "I am, &c., E. Gosling. 



" Aberffraw, Anglesey, June 13." 



A gentle placed on a hook might be cast as a fly with suc- 

 cess, provided a few gentles were thrown among the fish, to 

 make them feed on that bait. I have not tried the experiment. 



